SpaceX Employee With Crohn’s Says He Was Fired for Needing the Bathroom Too Often

Former SpaceX worker Douglas Altshuler is taking purpose astatine the Musk-owned institution successful a caller national favoritism lawsuit.

The 58-year-old Washington nonmigratory and his lawyers filed the suit past month. The suit alleges that Altshuler’s employers threatened to occurrence him for taking predominant bath breaks, adjacent aft helium told them that helium had Crohn’s disease. Altshuler besides alleges that helium was exposed to chemicals, was often denied repast breaks, and was denied due overtime wage during his 18-month employment there.

According to the lawsuit, archetypal obtained by The Independent past week, Altshuler was hired to grip lawsuit enactment calls astatine SpaceX’s Redmond, Washington, installation successful June 2023. He appeared to person nary issues with the occupation until aboriginal 2024, erstwhile his nonstop supervisor “began tracking Mr. Altshuler’s bath breaks and repeatedly criticized [him] for utilizing the bathroom,” the suit claims. Altshuler reportedly provided his supervisor with a doctor’s missive explaining that helium has Crohn’s disease, a signifier of chronic inflammatory bowel illness that often forces radical to usage the bath frequently, peculiarly during progressive flare-ups.

Altshuler claims that helium asked and was fixed assurance by 2 supervisors for a tenable accommodation to usage the bath arsenic needed. But soon enough, his nonstop supervisor allegedly began to needle him again implicit his toilet habits, tracking his bath breaks and penning him up whenever helium was distant from his table for much than 10 minutes. Altshuler says helium past pleaded his lawsuit to higher-ups astatine SpaceX, which reportedly led to retaliation from his supervisor during his adjacent show review; the suit claims that the supervisor “alleged show deficiencies which were ne'er brought to [Altshuler’s] attraction before.”

Though Altshuler was assigned to a caller supervisor successful October 2024, his issues reportedly continued. Altshuler alleges that helium was perchance exposed to chemicals successful November from “industrial parts being dried in the kitchen oven wherever employees navigator their food.” He reported the incidental to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and filed a worker’s compensation assertion implicit it arsenic well. Afterward, helium claims that helium was further retaliated against, with his caller supervisor reportedly threatening to occurrence him for utilizing the bath “too often.” In aboriginal January, Altshuler was allegedly told by Human Resources astatine SpaceX that his “concerns of retaliation were unsubstantiated.” Soon after, connected January 9, 2025, helium was fired, reportedly for “alleged deficient performance.” 

This isn’t the archetypal clip that erstwhile employees astatine SpaceX person alleged mistreatment and retaliation from the company’s management. In January 2024, the National Labor Relations Board accused SpaceX of illegally firing 8 employees aft they began to circulate a missive successful 2022 calling for SpaceX to region itself from Elon Musk’s behaviour and comments astatine the time, which included allegedly sexually harassing employees astatine the company. These employees person since filed their ain lawsuit successful California State Court against Musk. Musk has besides fired employees astatine X, formerly Twitter, since taking implicit ownership of the societal media company.

In speaking with The Independent, Altshuler’s lawyers reason that his firing is simply a clear-cut lawsuit of favoritism against him for his disability, arsenic good arsenic an illustration of retaliation against him for trying to talk up astir it. Altshuler has further claimed that helium was often required to skip his repast breaks and enactment agelong hours without added pay. “The company’s actions are egregious and successful wide usurpation of the law. Mr. Altshuler intends to question each ineligible remedies that are disposable to him,” Clive Pontusson, a erstwhile proceedings lawyer for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, told The Independent.

Gizmodo reached retired to SpaceX for remark regarding the suit but did not perceive backmost by the clip of publication.